Melodrama in three acts
Text by Francesco Maria Piave
after the play La Dame aux camélias by Alexandre Dumas
First performed March 6th 1853, Teatro La Fenice, Venice

Sung in Italian with German surtitles
Duration: c. 2 hrs and 45 min, incl. one interval

»Giuseppe Verdi wanted to make relevant in his time the prejudice of society against those who chose to live ›differently‹. Can’t we follow his example?«, asked the director Axel Corti, who tackled faschism and the fate of emigrants in many of his films. His production for Oper Frankfurt, which is more than 20 years old, transports the characters into occupied Paris in the 1940s. Alfredo Germont is introduced to the courtesan Violetta Valéry at a party. She tries, in vain, to suppress her feelings for him – she ends her jolly life in the city and moves to the country with him.
Alfredo’s father visits her, demanding that she give Alfredo up so that his daughter can make a respectable marriage. She sadly agrees, not wanting to stand in the way of another person’s chance of happiness…. Violetta Valéry is not only a victim of her incurable illness in Corti’s production: her tragedy is the focus of a polarised society.